Mudskippers, monitor lizards, macaques and pythons are all shown. The sacred rivers eventually flow into a vast delta at the Bay of Bengal, and here in the mangrove swamps of the Sundarbans, animals and people are adapted to the tidal conditions. These attract a huge density of tigers, and one bold individual is filmed trying to take on an adult buffalo. On the Brahmaputra in the north eastern state of Assam, Thapar introduces the animals of Kaziranga, including Indian rhino, wild elephants and one of the last populations of wild buffalo and barasingha. The huge concentration attracts over thirty kinds of birds of prey. As the monsoon draws to a close, more birds arrive, including sarus cranes, filmed conducting their courtship dances, and millions of waterfowl. The females co-operate, taking turns to guard their vulnerable young in a crèche. Young gharials call to their mother as they hatch so she can dig them out of their underground nest. Other animals shown are monitor lizards which prey on fallen eggs and chicks, fishing cats and endangered gharials, a fish-eating crocodile. The Bharatpur wetland sanctuary near the Taj Mahal is actually a man-made environment but is now a haven for hundreds of thousands of birds, including 2,000 pairs of painted storks which are filmed building nests, mating, incubating eggs and feeding their chicks. The rains bring a peak flow of 1 billion US gallons (3,800,000 m 3) of water every second down the rivers, flooding the plains of northern India and Bangladesh with fertile silt. Beginning at Devaprayag, the confluence of two tributaries which together give rise to the Ganges, Thapar explains how the fertility of the waters is dependent on the summer monsoon. The second programme features the wildlife of India's sacred rivers, the Ganges and Brahmaputra. Traditional beliefs instilled a feeling of respect for wild animals, but this is now being eroded Wildlife of the central forests face an uncertain future due to disappearing habitat and poaching. The programme closes with a warning message. The young are dug out of their underground nest and are handled by children despite the risk of a venomous bite (Thapar reveals that there are 20,000 deaths from cobra bites in India each year). Cobras are shown being protected by local villagers. Other unusual behaviour filmed includes a golden jackal family defending their pups from a sloth bear and a peacock attacking a snake. In the afternoon, chitals and langur monkeys move into open meadows, and here the female tiger succeeds in killing a langur. Spotted deer (or chital) are her favourite prey, but although distracted by the rut, her first hunt is unsuccessful. A female tiger with young cubs is filmed. Many of the animals are sacred or revered by Hindus, including elephants, monkeys, peacocks and snakes. Here, the characters of Kipling's Jungle Book can still be observed, among them the sloth bear, wolf, dhole, and tiger. Much of the footage is from the Kanha National Park, a protected reserve. After a preview of scenes from the forthcoming programmes, the rest of this episode concentrates on the wildlife of India's central forests and grasslands, the stronghold of the Bengal tiger. This is the last refuge of the Asiatic lion, which unlike its African cousin can be approached on foot, as demonstrated by presenter Valmik Thapar.
IMDB THE TIGER HUNTER SERIES
The series begins in the Gir Forest in the western state of Gujarat. It was preceded by Spirits of the Jaguar in 1996 and followed three years later by Andes to Amazon.Įpisodes 1. The series forms part of the Natural History Unit's Continents strand. The series is characterised by scenes of Thapar riding on an elephant in locations across the country. It was produced by Mike Birkhead and presented by leading Indian naturalist Valmik Thapar. Land of the Tiger was co-produced by the BBC Natural History Unit and the WNET/13 network. The production team covered the breadth and depth of India, from the Himalayan mountains in the north to the reef-fringed islands of the Indian Ocean, to capture footage of the country's wild places and charismatic wildlife. Land of the Tiger is a BBC nature documentary series exploring the natural history of the Indian subcontinent, first transmitted in the UK on BBC Two in 1997.